Multimodal conversation state and transfer through centralized notification

Abstract

A mechanism is provided for enabling subscribers of an enhanced communication system to switch endpoints during a conversation, add or remove modalities, invite new participants while continuing the conversation seamlessly. Active endpoints associated with a participant in a conversation may publish their states to a managing server and become aware of a status of the ongoing conversation. Subsequently, the participants may seamlessly switch to another endpoint and continue the conversation using the other endpoint.

1 . A method to be executed at least in part in a computing device for managing multimodal conversation state and transfer through centralized notification in an enhanced communication system, the method comprising:
 receiving updates from endpoints participating in a first conversation;   publishing the updates to all endpoints associated with participants of the first conversation;   enabling establishment of a second conversation by one of the endpoints associated with participants of the first conversation, wherein the second conversation is a continuation of the first conversation;   receiving updates from endpoints participating in the second conversation; and   publishing the updates to all endpoints associated with participants of the second conversation.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the second conversation is established through transmission of an invite message with a replace parameter from an endpoint selected by one of the participants. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the replace parameter indicates to receiving endpoints which conversation is being continued by the second conversation. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the updates from the endpoints participating in the first conversation include information associated with at least one from a set of: a state of each endpoint, a capability of each endpoint, and information associated with the first conversation. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein the information associated with the first conversation includes at least one from a set of: a type of the conversation, a length of the conversation, a list of participants of the conversation, and a priority of the conversation. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein the updates from the endpoints participating in the first conversation are received through a presence publication and updates are published to all endpoints associated with the participants of the first conversation through subscription to a self-presence channel. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 enabling the endpoints to add a new modality to one of the first and the second conversations.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the endpoint adding the new modality is enabled to add the new modality based on at least one of: a capability of other participating endpoints and a preference of subscribers associated with the other participating endpoints. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 enabling the endpoints to invite a new participant to one of the first and second conversations.   
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 archiving combined records of the first and second conversations by reconciling the records upon termination of the second conversation.   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the modalities of the first and second conversations include one from a set of: audio communication, video communication, an application sharing session, a data sharing session, a whiteboard sharing session, an electronic mail exchange, and an instant message session. 
     
     
         12 . A communication system for managing multimodal conversation state and transfer through centralized notification in an enhanced communication system, the system comprising:
 a communication server configured to facilitate multimodal communications between endpoints of the system;   a presence server configured to:
 receive presence updates from endpoints participating in a first conversation; 
 publish the updates to endpoints associated with participants of the first conversation through a self-subscription presence channel such that the endpoints are enabled to establish a second conversation, the second conversation being a continuation of the first conversation; 
 receive presence updates from endpoints participating in the second conversation; and 
 publish the updates to all endpoints associated with participants of the second conversation through the self-subscription presence channel. 
   
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein the parameters include at least one from a set of: modalities of the conversation, documents generated during the conversation, records of the conversation, a list of participants, and security attributes. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein a subscriber associated with one of the endpoints is enabled to at least one of: add a new modality and invite a new participant to one of the first and the second conversations based on the preserved parameters. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein the first and second conversations are facilitated by one of: dedicated servers for each distinct modality of the conversations, multipurpose servers, and a combination of servers and endpoints. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein the enhanced communication system is implemented as one of: a single network system in an enterprise environment and a multi-network system in a federated environment. 
     
     
         17 . A computer-readable storage medium with instructions stored thereon for managing multimodal conversation state and transfer through centralized notification in an enhanced communication system, the instructions comprising:
 receiving updates from endpoints participating in a plurality of conversations, wherein the updates include a state of each endpoint and a list of conversations associated with each endpoint;   aggregating the updates;   publishing the aggregated updates to all endpoints associated with participants of the plurality of conversations;   receiving an invite message with a replace parameter from one of the endpoints for initiating a new conversation, wherein the new conversation is a continuation of a selected one of the plurality of conversations;   enabling the endpoint initiating the new conversation to add a modality to the new conversation based on capabilities of the endpoint; and   upon termination of the new conversation, archiving combined records of the new conversation and the conversation replaced by the new conversation by reconciling the records.   
     
     
         18 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 17 , wherein the instructions further comprise:
 providing a subscriber associated with the endpoint initiating the new conversation information about at least one conversation facilitated by the subscriber's other endpoints.   
     
     
         19 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 18 , wherein the information provided to the subscriber includes at least one from a set of: modalities of the at least one conversation, a duration of the at least one conversation, participants of the at least one conversation, and a priority status of the at least one conversation. 
     
     
         20 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 17 , wherein the instructions further comprise:
 enabling the endpoint initiating the new conversation to replace at least two of the plurality of conversations with the new conversation.